bottomfeed Posted September 1, 2023 Author Share Posted September 1, 2023 Blimey!... Literally just arrived! Expected arrival date was Oct 17th!!! It's playable but needs a decent set up.. Tone is quite impressive at a first twiddle too... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted September 1, 2023 Share Posted September 1, 2023 Yes, mine had no neck relief and the action is too high. But I will still play it for a bit in a pub on saturday! Maybe I will get a chance to put a resistor in to tone down the LEDs first though 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Karloff Posted September 3, 2023 Share Posted September 3, 2023 On 01/09/2023 at 09:02, bottomfeed said: Blimey!... Literally just arrived! Expected arrival date was Oct 17th!!! It's playable but needs a decent set up.. Tone is quite impressive at a first twiddle too... You realise that isn't actually see through, and is instead their Persian Rug finish. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bottomfeed Posted September 7, 2023 Author Share Posted September 7, 2023 (edited) My guitar luthier has worked hard on this bass... it was a bit of a mess tbh! action was impossible! ...It now plays pretty good and it lights up! 🤡😊 Edited September 7, 2023 by bottomfeed 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 My action was high and the relief was none, although I still gigged it and it sounded fine. I did the neck releif but there is no way the action is going down without a shim so I need to do that. then I think I will do something about the LEDs, I might replace the bottom LEDs with multicolour ones and have a bit more of a sound to light thing going on. i mean, if we are going for tacky here, might as well go the whole way! The drummer was impressed, but then he has a green acrylic drum kit, so the only dissapointment was that it wasn't green LEDs! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 11 minutes ago, Woodinblack said: if we are going for tacky here, might as well go the whole way! Damned right! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 I've got a shim coming - set of three from Ebay for £7 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166313960606). The 0.5 degree one should be right (carefully calculated with what I remember of trigonometry from 50 years ago). Fret ends are fine. All seems pretty good apart from the neck angle. There's a replacement neck with all of the LEDs working coming at some point too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Get you with your fancy measuring - I always just lobbed something in and see how it went! I had a look at the LEDs in the body, it is just 6 LEDs wired with their leads in series, with a 9v battery across. I would prefer a less direct light, so thinking of putting some LEDs behind the pickups and bridge, where they can light up the back. and maybe turning the leds on the neck down a little bit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 I haven't looked at the circuitry yet - are the neck LEDs in parallel with the body ones? Putting a 1k (educated guess) trimmer in series with them would let you adjust the brightness level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Effectively - they are two unrelated circuits, so they are just connected to the battery via the switch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bottomfeed Posted September 8, 2023 Author Share Posted September 8, 2023 (edited) They are not the easiest basses to make playable...shim needed, bridge is a bit cheap but I'm not going to replace it.. the strings it comes with are utter pants! Pups are actually not bad, although they look & feel cheap.. action down to something playable.. string spacing is a little narrow for my liking ... but it is quite fun! Got a photo shoot for a 'Space Rock' band coming up... it's got to be part of that! 👽🤘🕉️ Edited September 8, 2023 by bottomfeed 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandy_r Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 (edited) ...I hope one (or more) will be appearing at the SWBB? ==== IIRC Blue LEDs operate around 2.8V +/- which suggests 2 strings of 3 in serIes across a 9V PP3 in the body (assuming no voltage converter circuit) Just adding a series resistor into each string of 'N' LEDs across the PP3 might not work well - you may find it's better to connect all LEDs currently on a battery to be in parallel (difficult in the neck?) and then connect one 10K ohm, say, trimpot in series between the LEDs and the battery. Sounds like fun 😉 Edited September 8, 2023 by sandy_r Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 Yep, mine will be there. I will put a resistor to the neck circuit (obviously no idea what is going on in there, there are leds at 3, 5, 7, 9, 12x2, 15, 17, 19, 21, 24x2 so 12 leds in total. The ones in the body are series, but I will probably put some kind of circuit to make them do something more interesting (and maybe add a few) 1 hour ago, bottomfeed said: They are not the easiest basses to make playable...shim needed, bridge is a bit cheap but I'm not going to replace it.. the strings it comes with are utter pants! Pups are actually not bad, although they look & feel cheap.. action down to something playable.. string spacing is a little narrow for my liking String spacing is a bit wide for my liking, a bridge is a bridge and the pickups, although they are low level sound ok. Yeh, strings not great but I played it live straight out of the packet so it will be better when I can actually adjust it! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted September 10, 2023 Share Posted September 10, 2023 I put a *shim in before the gig last night and it worked out perfect. Action is good now. *shim - ie, a bit of a plastic tub that got broken that my wife had delivered, cut a bit out, loosened the neck off and dropped it in, perfect size! 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted September 12, 2023 Share Posted September 12, 2023 I've just shimmed mine with a .5 degree shim. Without tuning up and adjusting the bridge saddles the angle seems just right - with saddles fully lowered, B and G strings are just off the fretboard and E, A and D are flat on it. After tuning up and adjusting the bridge saddles, it's not bad - slight fret buzz on a couple of strings at the 11th fret. Original strings still on it, they're not very nice so I'll change them in the near future and see if I can tweak the truss rod enough to mitigate the buzz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted September 12, 2023 Share Posted September 12, 2023 Mine still have the original strings, which seem ok at home, but on saturday, when I switched between the bongo (because I couldn't see the fretmarkers) and the acrylic, the tone was pretty weedy and rattly. I know, it isn't exactly a fair comparison as the bongo tends to out gravitas most things, but it was so weedy that I thought that maybe either it is because the strings were rattling - when I shimmed mine I had to raise the middle strings as they were rattling about the middle somewhere) or just the strings were no good. I should actually just put some decent strings on it really - I have played it at 3 gigs so it has earned me £315, which is £90 more than it cost, so I am up on the deal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bottomfeed Posted September 13, 2023 Author Share Posted September 13, 2023 I stuck some ' boiled' D'Addario EXL170-5 (so not even new) on mine & the tone is pretty good.. neck pup blended in a bit stronger.. is my preference. Not my favourite bass in my collection but fun and usable... for the right occasion 👽 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted September 14, 2023 Share Posted September 14, 2023 Mine isn't my favourite, I wouldn't use it that much at home, but it has featured in every gig since I got it, so might as well do something with it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted September 14, 2023 Share Posted September 14, 2023 Are there any other shapes available other than the vaguely J-shaped acrylic basses that have been posted recently? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted September 14, 2023 Share Posted September 14, 2023 Yes, I have them in various shapes, steinberger, the dan armstrong, Billy Bo, Les Paul and flying V. I am sure there are more (or companies that do whatever shape you want). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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